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Al's Morning Meeting

Home > Al's Morning Meeting
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Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'


*1. Seven key questions about a car company bailout.

*2. Just in time for Thanksgiving, PETA posts a video of turkey abuse on a poultry farm.  

*3. The Flip Cam has gone HD with a customizable cover.

4. A fun video to help you with digital conversion.

5. ProPublica's investigation into air marshals gone bad.

6. An awesome storm chaser photo blog

7. Planet Money is a really good blog about money and finance.

8. ESPN's "The Journey of Richard Jensen" -- the comeback of a wrestler -- is an extra good video.

9. You can lay subtitles or text bubbles on video -- any video. I will be using this to teach about storytelling.

10. I now use Utterz to file audio reports. You can use your computer's mic or any phone. It's simple and would be a great reporter's tool.

11. Kare 11 investigates a local children's transplant hospital.
Sites marked with a * have been added recently.

All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.


Millions Not Ready for Digital TV Change
MediaWeek reports:

More than 13 million households are unprepared for the TV industry's historical transition to digital broadcasting a year from now on Feb. 17, 2009. According to Nielsen data released Friday, the 13 million households have TV sets that can only receive analog broadcasts. Another 6 million households have at least one TV set that will no longer work after the big switch.

If the switch was today, 10.1 percent of households would find themselves staring at a snowy screen; 16.8 percent would have at least one analog TV set that wouldn't work.

Between now and then, consumers have several choices: purchase a new digital set, purchase a converter box for the old set or subscribe to a subscription TV service.

Some segments of the population are more prepared than others. Overall, adults 55 years and older are more prepared than younger households. Only 9.4 percent of Adults 55+ are completely unready compared to 12.3 percent of those under 35.

Here is an Federal Communications Commission resource page with just about everything you need to know about this subject.



Posted by Al Tompkins 12:08 AM
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